Phillies to Sign Utilityman Cedeno

According to the twitter account of Ken Rosenthal, the Phillies have signed infielder Ronny Cedeno to a minor league deal with an invite to Clearwater. In nine seasons, the 30-year-old Cedeno has played for the Cubs, Pirates, Mets, Padres, Mariners, and Astros.

Last season, split between Houston and San Diego, Cedeno hit .268 with a .318 OBP, but has little power or speed to talk of. Think Michael Martinez, but a slightly better hitter. He has accumulated a -1.4 WAR during his career.

Cedeno provides depth for the Phillies system and will have a shot at one of the final roster spots in March.

Dont really understand this signing, it kinda is pointless with Brignac in the organization. Amaro needs to sign some more pitchers to minor league deals Camp, Manship, O’Sullivan and Jimenez are very uninspiring signings. I still want us to target Ayala, Bailey or O’Flatherty on a major league deal. As far as minor league deals Lyon, McClellan, Neshek, Omogrosso, Sipp, Axelrod, Bedard, Jurrjens and McDonald would all be some interesting gambles on minor league deals.

Cedeno’s career .246/.289/.354 triple slash seems to be more than “slightly” better than Martinez’s .189/.234/.261 career line, but I get the sentiment. Purely an organizational depth transaction (for an organization that has very little depth).

Remember the days when Jim Thome and all the big stars WANTED to be in Philly? Remember every newscast at least thinking that we were at least going to be in on all the good free agents? No one in the national media has us as part of the conversation on Masahiro Tanaka.

We’re the 4th biggest TV market in the country with a rabid fan base? Why does this feel like the late 90s all over again?

A 73 win team isn’t going to be at the top of the list of most free agents. Besides that, Amaro has apparently (and rightly) decided that he’s not going to be able to spend himself out of this mess. As he said on the day he was hired – if he can’t win the payroll that ownership is allowing him, then he must be doing something wrong.

Guessing he will compete with Galvis. Not sure of Rubes thinking here. Im not appalled by the move. Freddy should have the better glove and Ronnie slightly better offensive #.s me thinks. While i think Galvis is a near a complete project some more time and or experience may help home some in the batters box. Perhaps Rube working on a trade involving Galvis. Who knows anymore with RAJ at the helm.

I don’t know why people keep comparing the “age” of the teams as if adding everyone’s age and dividing by 25 means anything. For one thing the 2008 team had ancient Jamie Moyer who practically added a full year to the “age” of the team as a whole.

Secondly, when people complain about the age of the team, they’re pretty much talking about the core people who are getting marched out on the field every day and let’s face it, 3/4 of our infield and our catcher are 6 years older than they were in 2008.

I’m not saying that’s a terrible thing. We could certainly do a lot worse than those guys (and in most cases, had we let them walk, our replacement players WOULD have been worse. Other than Howard’s contract, which everyone in the world thought was stupid, it’s pretty hard to say that any of the contracts offered to our core were a terrible idea (when given who we probably would have brought in to replace those guys.

Maybe injuries to Howard, Halladay, Ruiz, and Utley lowered that weighted average, but surely the injuries to Brown, Rvere, and others, and D.Young’s inability to play the first month and his release later in the year brought it back up. Lannan’s injury and the early shutdown of Kendrick probably also had some effect, though not a huge one given their middle-of-the- road ages.

I have no idea why people constantly harp on the whole age thing. It’s talent and depth that really matter. A garbge 23 year old isn’t going to help a team win, but an excellent older guy, say Cliff Lee, or David Ortiz, or Mariano Rivera certainly will.

Well said. Age isn’t the issue. We need players to produce. We need to stay healthy and we need some luck on our side.

I honestly think that one of the biggest things we haven’t been talking about is Ryne Sandberg. While not over .500. The team played significantly better (in a small sample size) under him.

While Cholly gave us some of the best years ever of Philly baseball, I think he suffered a little bit from apparently attending the Andy Reid School of Decision Making. Rhyno isn’t going to turn us into a contender just by his mere presence, but I’m interested in seeing what a Spring Training and a full season looks like under him.

If I may step into this debate, I’d like to add that age, injury, performance- and any other excuses for a roster with this kind of payroll not producing, can be alleviated with organizational depth. As Murphy points out, other teams were able to weather their own storms, some with talent within their organization and some with players obtained from other teams with those resources.

IMO- The problem isn’t relying on aging ( or younger) players to stay healthy, it’s having decent options to go to if the starters fail for whatever reason. It’s also about doing your homework, scouting available players that you can pick up if needed – as Brian Cashman did last season. It’s about a commitment to building an all around organization so that pin-hole leaks don’t become gushers when the inevitable storm clouds (injuries, end of careers, and under-producering players) roll in.

I think I alresady stated that, Lefty: “It’s talent and depth that really matter.” Maybe I should have put more emphasis on the “depth” part.

I also don’t think Cashman did all that well with the pieces he picked up. Vernon Wells was his usual stinky self, he never did find a really decent SS or 3rd baseman, and he even was in trade discusions for one of Amaro’s less than stellar position players, Michael Young. I also can’t remember if he added any pitching to his miserable starting rotation. Last year it seemed to me that most the mediocre teams were simply shuffling players around as if they were deck chairs on the Titanic. Some guys were waived by multiple teams, and still got picked up by other needy front offices. Many GMs seemed to be diving after utility infielders and seventh outfielders, acting just like a bunch of penniless nicotine addicts diving after the cigarette butt someone had just dropped on the sidewalk.

Curious signing with Ronny Cedeno. I suppose Phillies GM wants a little more depth and Cedeno is not a bad backup utility infielder (can play ss, 2b, 3b and OF). Certainly better than lightweights Martinez and Galvis. I’ll predict that Galvis will be heading back to the minors to learn how to hit.

Personally, I like to see the manager give Cesar Hernandez a chance to stay with the ballclub as he has shown potential with the bat and is able to play more than one position.

With injury risks at three of the infield spots and a 3rd baseman who isn’t quite a proven player yet, the Phils need all the infield depth they can find. Cedeno is on a MINOR league contract, and may not even make the team, but it’s good to have him as well as Brignac, Hernandez, Frandsen, and Galvis in the system just in case. He might also be an option should the coaching staff decide one of the young guys, like Hernandez or Galvis need regular at bats at AAA instead of sporadic appearances off the Phils’ bench.

One of the biggest problems last season was a lack of good options; that’s why MiniMart was so often on the 25 man roster. These most recent signings may not be fantastic, but they’tre probably all better than Martinez.